Why You Should Write Your Feelings in a Journal

I’m Christian Foremost, a Filipino Blogger/Writer/Podcaster and mental health advocate who writes personal stories of growth, life advice, and refreshing perspectives to inspire you to love yourself. I promote daily journaling as a healthy outlet to express and explore one’s honest thoughts and feelings. The path towards self-discovery and actualization starts by acknowledging your truths and facing your problems head-on.

Whenever you’re stuck in an emotional rut and couldn’t pinpoint exactly why? When you can’t explain why you’re feeling a certain way, who do you turn to? Your best friend? Your parents? Your partner?

I turn around, away from everyone, and open up my journal. There I pour all of it out every single thought, confusion, and emotion. And when I face people again, I can say that I am genuinely “fine”.

Why You Should Write Your Feelings in a Journal

By writing your thoughts down in a journal, you’re listening to yourself talk. You’re able to see clearly what exactly is going on inside your head.

Nobody is going to be reading your words, but you. So you can stick to pure honesty, no matter how dark, wrong and twisted it may be. You can curse all you want and not hold back any feelings. It’s really liberating. You’re no longer going back and forth in your mind trying to find a solution. You’re pouring it all out through your fingers and your words are leading you on the path towards clarification and then, all the way to a possible solution.

If you suppress emotions or cover them up with distractions or other problems, you’re only piling up all of the toxic thoughts and troubles in your mind. It’s going to be circling around and around in there demanding some attention. You don’t want that many voices in your head, do you? It will drive you insane. It could place you in a certain funk, cause you to stress out and worse, direct all of that turmoil or negativity unintentionally to other people.

Are friends who are always there for you, always there?

Talking to other people may help, especially if that’s the type of person you are, sociable and very outspoken. The trouble I had is how sometimes your friends or people you hold dear may just not understand your situation or can’t do anything to help. They don’t have the ability to just magically solve all of your problems for you. And of course, they have problems of their own. Who are you to complain, right? So it is understandable if sometimes you feel like they don’t care or if they get irritated when you just mostly talk about yourself.

It’s also like spreading the negativity of your issues to another person who can literally do nothing about it. You can’t exactly rely on someone to be there every time you have a pressing concern. It’s unfair of you to expect that of them. You have to learn how to handle your troubles on your own.

Girl, why keep it in? Let it out. Let it all out!

It doesn’t do any good keeping your thoughts only to yourself. They have to have somewhere to go like an outlet whatever that may be for you. If you just take some time to reflect on yourself, and the situation you’re facing, then you’ll figure out what exactly you need to do.

The only person who can fully understand you is yourself. The only one who can help you is yourself. Try not to drag other people into the drama by spreading rumors, gossip or gathering followers to join your cause. Figure out what you need to move on, and do something about it.

Regular mental check-up, anyone?

I also recommend journaling because you get the chance to regularly check yourself out. You can see if the things you’re doing are still aligned with your goals. What exactly can you do right now, given your present situation? Are you doing okay? Are you happy? Are you getting better or worse? Do you like the person you see when you’re hearing your thoughts out loud? Is that who you like to be?

It does take a bit of time and patience, but keeping a journal is going to be such a helpful tool. It will lessen the confusion and the burden you’re carrying around day by day. You’ll find a certain kind of certainty and confidence in your decisions moving forward.

Journaling is not only about negativity, you know? You can also write about the good things or the happy memories you just had in full detail so that you can hold on to the feeling for as long as you’d like. It’s fun to read back and see yourself happy especially when you suddenly don’t remember the feeling anymore.

Am I a self-actualized human being yet? Is my life all fixed? NOPE.

I personally am still a mess. But at least with journaling, you have a healthy way of dealing with your problems. I won’t say that by writing journal entries every single day, it means that you are now mentally stable and have everything figured out in life.

I’m so far from that. The thing is, I need to write every single day or else, I will lose it. I trained myself to quickly go through all of the troubles I’m facing in an entry so that they won’t linger any longer in my brain and I can handle the rest of the day.

You don’t have to be a writer or good with words to start having a journal. Every person is different and you can have your own version of a journal or a diary. The important thing is for you to have an outlet to have a place to tell the story of your life out into the world. This may be through your art, your relationships or your work, whatever gives you direction, purpose or meaning.

Journaling was just something that has helped grow not only my writing but my mindset for personal development. It taught me that just because you think you’re a bad person or you’ve done all of these bad things doesn’t mean that’s all you are. You have the power to change that, to right your wrongs and become a good person. All you have to do is focus your energy and attention to become a better you, someone you can be proud of.

A Diary up on the Clouds? What?

Does anybody even still write on pen and paper? Everybody is mostly on their phones or using their laptops. No matter what you have with you, I have just the app to get you started. Take advantage of the power of the cloud because it is super convenient.

Journey

The app I specifically use is called Journey and through the years of using it, I super recommend it. It automatically syncs all of your entries to your phone or laptop. Whatever device you’re using at the moment, if you find the itch to write, you can just open up the app and you’re ready to go. It’s PIN or Fingerprint password protected. You can even attach pictures or videos, have an actual tracker for your mood and so much more.

Microsoft One Note

Another app I recommend is Microsoft One Note. It has just been such a great tool, not for journaling specifically, but just taking down notes. You can write down random ideas or things to do for a specific project you may have in work, a future trip or maybe a goal in mind. It gives this structure you can build your ideas on so that they may actually lead to something.

Things happen if you put the idea out of your mind and into the world.

Through having these apps or even an old fashion physical journal, you will have somewhere to quickly turn to whenever you need one, just whip it out of your pocket or bag. You can also look through and read back on all of the entries you had before and just laugh at how ridiculous you sound.

So? Start journaling today, write up your life and see it unfold before your eyes! Good luck!

Need more reasons to start a journal? Read You Should Start a Journal – Quarantine Tips. Learn how Journaling helped me by reading Journaling Led Me to Self Discovery.

Disclaimer: The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your mental health professional or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding your condition.

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